DamageEX2 Member May 20, 2024 1,226 After seeing the recent trailer for Expedition 33, i have been noticing a decent amount of hype and antecipation, but im noticing how the game avoid the FF artsyle or style of the characters, to show something more realistic, just like the recent Resident Evil games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Cast Reveal Trailer | PS5 Games https://store.playstation.com/concept/10008503/Once a year, the Paintress awakens to inscribe her cursed number on the monolith.And everyone of that age vani... m.youtube.com All this make me think, should Square change the artsyle for the mainline FF games to something like this? Would this help reach more people that are not fans of the look of the characters in Final Fantasy? I notice a lot of people and content creators fans of WRPGs,that dont care at all about FF, but when a new From Software game or Dragons Dogma 2 releases, they are there day 1. I dont know if making all this, will make these people care or buy the game, but maybe if it works out, it can make the series reach a new audience.  KamenSenshi Member Nov 27, 2017 2,135 No. Other things exist.   nsilvias Member Oct 25, 2017 29,994 i mean ffs realism is already putting of some jrpg fans. ff realism is appealing to mainstream audiences already just not the games themselves. crpg fans not like ff is just crpg wrpgs fans not liking how little player choice jrpgs have plus the animeisms   Theswweet RPG Site Verified Oct 25, 2017 7,271 California If anything, they should double down. Anime and Japanese media is mainstream worldwide these days.   AuthenticM Son Altesse Sérénissime The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 35,104 no.   FrostweaveBandage Unshakable Resolve Member Sep 27, 2019 9,818 No   Desma "This guy are sick" Member Oct 27, 2017 6,732 Isn't that what FF XVI was?   Keym The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 9,678 Atlus jrpgs sell a lot and they don't have a "western" artstyle. So no.   Linus815 Member Oct 29, 2017 24,014 ff16 already basically did that   The Quentulated Mox Corrupted by Vengeance Member Jun 10, 2022 6,550 The thing keeping buyers away is not the art style And, frankly, I would be much less interested in FF17 if they go the cel-shaded anime designs like every other jrpg  ReyVGM Author - NES Endings Compendium Verified Oct 26, 2017 5,803 Isn't that what FF has been doing for a while already?   Aaronrules380 Avenger Oct 25, 2017 24,353 If anything making it more anime would probably help more. The mainstream taste nowadays tend to lean towards more stylized games. Like stuff like Fortnite or Minecraft don't have realistic art styles   mute ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 25, 2017 29,310 They could be attracting larger audiences by making something that runs on a Nintendo handheld, the art style is irrelevant.   404LinkNotFound Member Oct 27, 2017 10,602 Isnt that FF16 did tho? Also japanese art styles are mainstream these days  Lobster Roll signature-less, now and forever™ Member Sep 24, 2019 40,372 In my opinion, they need to go with something far more distinct and varied for their artstyle and cast. The less realistic and more stylized their games, the better. They need to go even further in on making things feel like a fantasy. Give me bright colors, unique outfits, very obvious job/classes, and have characters stand out in a way that you want to know more:   strangelove777 Alt account Banned Nov 23, 2023 1,570 They should make it more anime.   Sander VF Banned Oct 28, 2017 26,876 Tbilisi, Georgia FFXVI was already going for that aesthetic, no?   Cheesecake Banned Oct 12, 2024 126 Outside of FF7 modern Final Fantasy has been pretty realistic in character design. Personally I'd rather they go back to the art direction of FFX. Have the characters look truly fantastical.   Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,675 Melbourne, Australia No. DamageEX2 said: Would this help reach more people that are not fans of the look of the characters in Final Fantasy? Click to expand... Click to shrink... And the millions of fans that love the existing looks of the series?  Elyian Member Feb 7, 2018 3,494 Theswweet said: If anything, they should double down. Anime and Japanese media is mainstream worldwide these days. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Been saying this for a minute now.   Kutaragi Member Sep 3, 2020 800 ITALY Aaronrules380 said: If anything making it more anime would probably help more. Click to expand... Click to shrink... This.  sir_crocodile Member Oct 25, 2017 24,587 they already did that and it appealed to less people not more lol   Brodo Baggins Member Oct 27, 2017 5,598 Expedition 33 will probably sell like a million copies, 2 million max. The art style is probably FF's biggest strength tbh. If anything they should go further with Japanese stylization. Anime is far more mainstream than ever these days. I think the biggest thing for FF as a franchise is they need to COMMIT. Every mainline game since the start of the PS3 era has felt severely compromised in some way. FFXVI is the closest it's felt to a "complete" game and it feels aggressively scoped and does not commit to the storytelling style and tone it sets out in the prologue throughout. FFVII Remake and FFVII Rebirth feel like complete games, but the whole chunking up of FFVII into 3 games still gives that feeling of compromise.  Cheesecake Banned Oct 12, 2024 126 The Quentulated Mox said: The thing keeping buyers away is not the art style And, frankly, I would be much less interested in FF17 if they go the cel-shaded anime designs like every other jrpg Click to expand... Click to shrink... What if it was Amano style? There's more than one anime art style.  The Unsent Member Oct 25, 2017 22,398 I think they should go for a more fairytale-esque aesthetic. I think there is potential for a renaissance there after how dark the last two mainline Final Fantasy games were.   Renteka-Bond Chicken Chaser Member Dec 28, 2017 6,016 Clearwater, Florida God no, them going so hard into Western medieval blandness in 16 was one of the worst parts of the game for me. Stuff like 8, 13 and, if you squint, 15 with their sort of future fantasy (or in 8's case, contemporary) works, but 16 completely missed the mark and the big appeal of Clair is all the wacky timeywimey otherworld vibes of the environment, not the realistic people.  Aaronrules380 Avenger Oct 25, 2017 24,353 Realistically, what helps something like the from soft games get so big is that the structure and gameplay loop was very streamer friendly and that's huge among younger players nowadays. Story heavy games are always going to be at some disadvantage in that regard, even if there's a niche even within streaming for those types of games Dragon's dogma isn't really that big. II did similar numbers to the larger JRPG franchises that aren't DQ, FF, or pokemon, it's not some massive mainstream hit  Deleted member 125476 Sep 8, 2022 2,818 making FF even more drab would just hurt it even more if anything it needs to get more stylized and interesting cos it's been one of the blandest JRPG franchises aesthetically for a while now  Quinton Verified Oct 25, 2017 23,072 Midgar, With Love I don't think that would work.   Hikari One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 25,196 Elysium I mean, we just got that with FFXVI and clearly it didn't work so no? I would much prefer if they go back to a more colourful artstyle.   Majunior Member Jun 20, 2019 2,118 Aaronrules380 said: If anything making it more anime would probably help more. The mainstream taste nowadays tend to lean towards more stylized games. Like stuff like Fortnite or Minecraft don't have realistic art styles Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is true. I'm noticing a lot of big GAAS like Genshin, Valorant, and Overwatch take this approach.   MoonCrow Member May 27, 2024 146 They've changed art styles like thirty times now so this reads as more like "should they make it look less Japanese"   Xwing This guy are sick of the unshakeable slayer Member Nov 11, 2017 11,594 WE'RE SO BACK   OP OP DamageEX2 Member May 20, 2024 1,226 Sander VF said: FFXVI was already going for that aesthetic, no? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not realistic enough, still stylized. Something like God of War its an easier sell for the casual audiences because of the aesthetic and visual that FFXVI with the game look.   PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 132,624 Clair Obscur's art style is already pretty close to FFXVI's and it didn't help. I don't think going more anime would help either, though. The series is just old.  DoradoWinston Member Apr 9, 2019 8,362 i genuinely love the look of 7R would love it if they kept it that way for the main series but for any side games they should go crazy with different styles   Desma "This guy are sick" Member Oct 27, 2017 6,732 Majunior said: This is true. I'm noticing a lot of big GAAS like Genshin, Valorant, and Overwatch take this approach. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think that's because they need to run on weaker hardware like phones   Aaronrules380 Avenger Oct 25, 2017 24,353 Majunior said: This is true. I'm noticing a lot of big GAAS like Genshin, Valorant, and Overwatch take this approach. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I feel like there's a lot of people stuck in the past in this regard. Trends have changed. When we were young hyper realistic styles were the vogue because they were great at showcasing growing tech, but as tech has hit the point of diminishing returns, realistic games already look really good, and the indie scene has grown we've reached a point where art style has become king because it's much easier (and frankly cheaper) to stand out with that then by trying to pump up the graphics for marginal improvements   brinstar Member Oct 25, 2017 12,088 If anything I wish it was more anime/cartoony. FF7R has this realistic look to it but the characters animate like cartoon dolls and it makes the whole thing look so uncanny outside the higher budget cutscenes. The Moogles look disgusting lmao.   Squarealex Member Nov 11, 2017 1,809 I like FF16 art-style. Much more than the anime style Division 1 doing since FF13.   Koklusz Member Oct 27, 2017 3,915 I really don't think art style is an issue here.   Graven Member Oct 30, 2018 4,545 I'm under the impression that this is what they were attempting since FFXV.   NinjaScooter Member Oct 25, 2017 60,644 FF doesn't really have an "art style" they constantly change that shit and the most recent one was very western fantasy aesthetic. This thread feels like someone who stopped playing FF games after the original 7.   Necron ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 25, 2017 9,810 Switzerland Nope   Sander VF Banned Oct 28, 2017 26,876 Tbilisi, Georgia DamageEX2 said: Not realistic enough, still stylized. Something like God of War its an easier sell for the casual audiences because of the aesthetic and visual that FFXVI with the game look. Click to expand... Click to shrink... You cite games like Elden Ring which are similarly stylized.   Universal Acclaim Member Oct 5, 2024 2,251 I think the male characters in 16 looks pretty good and modern, but the facial animation and whatnot can always be improved   Dark Knight One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 21,295 Lobster Roll said: In my opinion, they need to go with something far more distinct and varied for their artstyle and cast. The less realistic and more stylized their games, the better. They need to go even further in on making things feel like a fantasy. Give me bright colors, unique outfits, very obvious job/classes, and have characters stand out in a way that you want to know more: Click to expand... Click to shrink... THIS THIS THIS I've been saying this for the past couple years. This shit right here is peak Final Fantasy, and is exponentially more appealing than the same derivative style they've been employing for the past two decades to some degree, in the mainline series anyways. You want to hook in younger players? Speak to them through color and form! Experiment with art style with the same cavalier attitude you experiment with gameplay mechanics.  GalaxyDive Member Oct 25, 2017 5,233 Yeah dunno why this is being framed as a "should?" when the franchise literally just did this with XVI to no particular success. Chasing the western medieval dragon is not something FF should continue doing.  NinjaScooter Member Oct 25, 2017 60,644 DamageEX2 said: Not realistic enough, still stylized. Something like God of War its an easier sell for the casual audiences because of the aesthetic and visual that FFXVI with the game look. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Clair Obscur is also A) not realistic and B) very stylized.  YohraUtopia Member Apr 1, 2021 1,396 isn't FFXVI kinda this already? I guess I don't fully understand what's in question. Art style does not seem to me the principal problem with FF Brodo Baggins said: I think the biggest thing for FF as a franchise is they need to COMMIT Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think this is right. Like FFXVI should have just gone straight full action game and stuck to its political intrigue stuff instead of defaulting back to bog standard cosmic battle. FFXV was totally ok but also didn't fully commit to either its open world or the 'darker'' DNA of its XII vs roots. On the flip side, the VII remakes so far are doing great at committing and playing with an interestingly blended art style but honestly people may call it bloated but Rebirth totally leans into just how both wacky and serious a FF can be at the same time as the OG did too. It, well, commits. 

doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,053 Hello, yes, it's me again with another GTA thread lol! Apologies if your personal fave isn't a poll option, there are only so many options that you can have for one poll. Anyway, the answer is Niko Bellic. Followed by Franklin and then CJ/Trevor (they're tied for third).  Redis Member Mar 1, 2025 195 CJ   MadJosh04 Member Nov 9, 2022 2,712 Niko is my boy   Shin Kojima Member Oct 27, 2017 4,062 The guy from 3 because silent characters are my favorite. Otherwise Trevor because his personality fits with how most people seemingly play GTA.  mrmickfran The Fallen Oct 27, 2017 33,107 Gongaga I'm not a GTA dude, but CJ has the best memes so him   Exist 2 Inspire Powered by Friendship™ Member Apr 19, 2018 4,655 Germany CJ and Tommy, modern GTA protagonists just aren't as good.   BasilZero Member Oct 25, 2017 39,846 Omni Niko most relatable despite being in the worst GTA Tommy vercetti a close second in terms of personality and character After that for me it's CJ, Michael and Franklin I hate Trevor  Baphomet Member Dec 8, 2018 21,721 CJ.   Whisu Member May 19, 2021 820 CJ   AuthenticM Son Altesse Sérénissime The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 35,064 Exist 2 Inspire said: CJ and Tommy, modern GTA protagonists just aren't as good. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah. I'm hoping that gta vi changes this.   Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,627 Melbourne, Australia   disgraciau Member Oct 27, 2017 2,070 Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain Niko Bellic, love his character.   OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,053 Exist 2 Inspire said: CJ and Tommy, modern GTA protagonists just aren't as good. Click to expand... Click to shrink... AuthenticM said: Yeah. I'm hoping that gta vi changes this. Click to expand... Click to shrink... How come? (genuine question)  astroturfing Member Nov 1, 2017 7,530 Suomi Finland only 3 votes for Michael? wth? he's like clearly the best. such a funny wreck of a man with some hilarious family interactions. and the voice actor Ned Luke is just perfect as him. i don't think Lucia or Jason will have a chance to replace him as my favorite either.. they dont seem funny at all sadly :/  OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,053 astroturfing said: only 3 votes for Michael? wth? he's like clearly the best. such a funny wreck of a man with some hilarious family interactions. and the voice actor Ned Luke is just perfect as him. i don't think Lucia or Jason will have a chance to replace him as my favorite either.. they dont seem funny at all sadly :/ Click to expand... Click to shrink... They haven't said nearly enough to be sure of this yet lmao  Roxas The Fallen Oct 28, 2017 4,855 Buenos Aires, Argentina Niko was the most relatable, yes. I always thought that the main character of a GTA game being a war vet made perfect sense for all the stupid chaos you do in these games (which, granted, is still unrealistic for a vet), and his arch was pretty great. Too bad if you play that game you have to endure Roman's constant calls to go bowling or something like that   mute ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 25, 2017 29,270 CJ   astroturfing Member Nov 1, 2017 7,530 Suomi Finland doops. said: They haven't said nearly enough to be sure of this yet lmao Click to expand... Click to shrink... yeah im keeping an open mind, but so far i dont like the vibes i get from them.. and the absolute last thing i want to see in a GTA is a goddamn romance. i hope they break up in the intro lol. but yeah we'll see..  MarshallLaw Member Oct 19, 2023 1,493 Niko. CJ second. Multiple protagonists in V didn't work for me, personally   RichieMythic Member Oct 27, 2017 2,147 England, UK astroturfing said: yeah im keeping an open mind, but so far i dont like the vibes i get from them.. and the absolute last thing i want to see in a GTA is a goddamn romance. i hope they break up in the intro lol. but yeah we'll see.. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I hope they break up asap so I can get Jason on GTA Grindr  Shivam Member Sep 17, 2022 368 Niko Bellic, the ending when Niko is alone on the bridge still leaves me with many emotions.   AuthenticM Son Altesse Sérénissime The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 35,064 doops. said: How come? (genuine question) Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't care for Niko and thought that gta iv's story was overrated. The guys from V aren't as boring but they still are somewhat boring, and I didn't care for their story. I prefer Tommy and CJ simply because they were both more fun. Of the two I prefer Tommy because of Ray Liotta.  Beelzebufo Member Jun 1, 2022 5,817 Canada Niko>Tommy>CJ Don't give a shit about V's  DRock Avenger Oct 25, 2017 1,398 CJ's the best. He's reluctantly thrown into fucked up situations due to the harsh world he lives in, all the while complaining about how fucked up it is through the game.   OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,053 astroturfing said: yeah im keeping an open mind, but so far i dont like the vibes i get from them.. and the absolute last thing i want to see in a GTA is a goddamn romance. i hope they break up in the intro lol. but yeah we'll see.. Click to expand... Click to shrink... lol they won't. also you're saying that as if trevor and patricia's fling isn't the best part of gta 5 ;) Besides, having a central romance, or even a romance at all, is not really something Rockstar has done outside of GTA 4 and Bully, at least to this extent. It's something different at least, and we love to see that.  stn Member Oct 28, 2017 6,387 Niko, followed very closely by CJ.   Raygun Member Aug 13, 2024 222 CJ and it isn't even close   Dev Member Oct 25, 2017 1,147 Australia My boy Trevor.   seroun Member Oct 25, 2018 5,273 CJ and then Tommy. I don't think V has anything appealing story or character wise.   ozumas Born to be Wise and Corrupted by Vengeance Member Dec 15, 2020 4,660 Arthur Morgan, if Arthur Morgan was a GTA protagonist. Nico Bellic   The Unsent Member Oct 25, 2017 22,371 I guess Trevor, he's repulsive but often funny, the most memorable out of these selection of awful people.   Lucia Member Oct 18, 2021 2,368 Argentina CJ sweeps.  

Macworld Super-weird bugs in Messages are nothing new, but this latest one is a real head-scratcher: If you try to send an audio message with the phrase “Dave and Buster’s,” it won’t work. Why would that specific phrasing cause a problem? A coding expert has cracked the case. I won’t say “and the reason will shock you,” but if you’re anything like me, you’ll find it interesting. First, let me explain what happens when the bug triggers. At first, the audio message (“I’m off to eat lunch at Dave and Buster’s,” as an example) appears to send normally. It shows up in the Messages thread to the recipient, along with a transcript of the content. No problem is flagged. It’s at the recipient’s end that we spot the issue. Initially the recipient sees the ellipsis icon, indicating that something is being typed or sent… but this carries on, and carries on, and eventually disappears. And at this point there is no indication that anything has been sent at all: no message, no message transcript, no message failed notification. In fact, if the recipient didn’t happen to have the app open, or had it open but was in a different conversation thread, they never would have known something was supposed to be on the way. This bug is new to me, and the first time I heard about it was when it was discussed on Monday in the blog run by Guilherme Rambo, a coding and engineering expert. Rambo, in turn, heard about the bug on the Search Engine podcast, which devoted its May 9 episode to the subject. Rambo reproduced the bug, guessed the problem must be at the recipient end, then plugged that device into his Mac and started looking at logs. And from that point it doesn’t appear to have taken long for him to work out what was going on: iOS’s transcription engine was recognizing the name of the U.S. restaurant chain, changing it to the correct corporate branding (“Dave & Buster’s,” with an all-important ampersand), and then passing that into the XHTML code used to send a transcript with the audio message. The problem isn’t being caused by the words Dave and Buster’s, but by the ampersand character between them, which has a special purpose in coding and prevents the code from being parsed correctly. The phrase “Dave and Buster’s” doesn’t cause a problem in the U.K. because iOS doesn’t add an ampersand (or even an apostrophe).David Price / Foundry As you can see in the image at the top of this story, a seemingly successfully sent audio iMessage ending with the phrase “Dave & Buster’s” appears as sent but never actually appears on the recipient’s phone. After a while, the audio message disappeared from the sender’s phone, and the recipient was completely unaware that the message had ever been sent. With that in mind, it’s a short leap to recognize that other brands could cause the same issue—they just haven’t been spotted doing so up to now. Rambo notes that “M&Ms” will do the same thing. For U.K. iPhone owners, in fact, “Dave and Buster’s” doesn’t trigger the bug because that chain is evidently not well enough known here and doesn’t get its ampersand added by autocorrect. To reproduce the issue, I had to ask a friend to send me a message about the supermarket chain M&S. Sure enough, this caused the hanging ellipsis followed by an unsent message. At the time of writing, it seems almost certain that any phrase iOS would recognize as containing an ampersand would cause an audio message to fail, and when I put it like that, it’s surprising the bug hasn’t been more widely reported. But here’s what happens when a U.K. user tries to send a message about the supermarket chain M&S, complete with ampersand.Karen Haslam / Foundry On the plus side, one would imagine it’s a bug that should be easy to patch in an iOS update. The transcription feature in Messages simply needs to be told to “escape” special characters so they don’t mess up the parsing process. And as Rambo notes, this isn’t a bug with any security vulnerabilities; indeed, it shows Apple’s BlastDoor mechanism working correctly. “Many bad parsers would probably accept the incorrectly-formatted XHTML,” he writes, “but that sort of leniency when parsing data formats is often what ends up causing security issues. By being pedantic about the formatting, BlastDoor is protecting the recipient from an exploit that would abuse that type of issue.”